A few days late but I was out all weekend and wasn't on the net much. Spotted on PSOW:

DoubleJG wrote:

Hi everyone, I have some unfortunate news for us all.

I met up with RubyEclipse at the SEGA booth and asked him the question that is on many of our minds here at PSOW: "Will there be an English release of PSPo2: Infinity?"

Here is the response that I was given:

As much as I would love to see an English release of Infinity, SEGA West is currently not looking at further PSP development. Games like PSPo2 and Valkyria Chronicles 2 did not sell nearly as well as we had hoped that they would. Also, we all have to take into account the heavy amount of piracy that plagues the West. It may happen at some point, but there are currently no plans for it.

In a nutshell, we can blame poor sales and pirates. His response also leads me to believe that we will not be seeing Valkyria Chronicles 3, either. We also discussed how we are both excited for PSO2 and how SEGA is going full-force with that project. Ruby also owns a Japanese copy of Infinity, but he didn't appear to know that Max Attack Infinity is currently live. My guess is that it is because of how busy he has been with E3 preparation.

_________________Observation: Can't see a thingConclusion: DINOSAURSPSO2Blog

schlagwerk

Post subject: Re: No English PSPo2i release?

Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2011 5:14 pm

Joined: Wed Jun 11, 2008 10:51 pmPosts: 577Location: Magashi likes me

Pfft you bunch of egomaniacs thinking you caused this.

I've been saying that every time someone asks when PSP2i English is coming out Sega pushes back the date and removes content. Well obviously because of them we can't have nice poorly translated, hacked to bits, half-assed, unsupported things.

Though I'll continue to enjoy hearing the cries of fanboys and sipping on their tears as I play PSP2i jp.

EDIT: It's just a shame that in their overzealous removal of content, Sega also removed an entire other game. I would have rather liked to have gotten to play Valkyria Chronicles 3 in English

_________________"Twin Dil-Edge" always makes me snicker.

Mewn

Post subject: Re: No English PSPo2i release?

Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2011 6:16 pm

PSUPedia SysOp

Joined: Wed May 28, 2008 9:57 amPosts: 1340

We released the passwords to obtain weak novelty weapons and clothes. That was hugely significant. What makes you think we didn't cause this? Clearly they are blaming pirates because the truth is so embarrassing.

I can just imagine the boardroom meeting where PSP2i EN was a done deal until Ruby reported that the 1% of PSUPedia had ruined it for everyone else by releasing those passwords. The looks of horror upon the faces of men (and maybe women) who thought they had seen it all in the business as they realized they had been brought low by notorious cheaters. Brings a tear to the eye.

But seriously, I'd like to think people would learn that if you are not Japanese you are not Sonic Team's target audience for Phantasy Star, and that your best option would be to learn the smidgen of Japanese it takes to play these games (or simply find another series to follow). But they won't, and Sega will continue to do things like replacing the Great Arms Race rewards with GC content on the 360 version, in the most hilariously thoughtless manner.

Don't really care about VC3 though, tried the second one and didn't like it. Still sucks if you like those games though. Heard they were better supported than PS outside of Japan.

_________________Space court. For people in space. Judge space sun presiding. Bam. Guilty. Of being in space.

The 360 should be happy with all the EXCLUSIVE content they're getting!

Somewhat related the feeling of being 2nd class consumers is present in other asian mmos I've found... OK so my experience so far as been Phantasy Star and Aion but it's making me seriously wary about trying other asian mmos in the future..

_________________Observation: Can't see a thingConclusion: DINOSAURSPSO2Blog

schlagwerk

Post subject: Re: No English PSPo2i release?

Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2011 7:42 pm

Joined: Wed Jun 11, 2008 10:51 pmPosts: 577Location: Magashi likes me

FFXI was the only Asian-based online game I've played where the Western release was 1:1 with the JP version... because they were all on the same servers.

Though then there's Dungeon Fighter Online. After lagging behind the Korean and Japanese versions for so long.. in fact the gap grew over time (why does that sound familiar?), Nexon finally said fuck it and next week the US servers are being brought up to date with the Japanese servers all at once

_________________"Twin Dil-Edge" always makes me snicker.

Mewn

Post subject: Re: No English PSPo2i release?

Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2011 8:19 pm

PSUPedia SysOp

Joined: Wed May 28, 2008 9:57 amPosts: 1340

I've said it for years - a Western company needs to do a good PSO-style game. Diablo and the like (while a cool genre I enjoy) don't count.

_________________Space court. For people in space. Judge space sun presiding. Bam. Guilty. Of being in space.

(Actually, I think it's because we didn't create a wiki for Infinity, so their translation staff didn't have a cheat sheet to work from.)

The sad thing is that this is probably true.

You're most likely right, not that they were following the PSPo2 "cheat sheet" that accurately to begin with and randomly changed (and/or even TYPOED) things on purpose it seems, with different translations for both the item name and the item description in case the item's name was in the description itself (hilarious).Oh well, I'll keep playing my PSPo2i JP version.

Saw this coming a mile away, so I'm really not surprised. They could have gone and kept releasing their silly item passwords on various websites anyways, even if I doubt that would have lured anyone in. Banking on those for advertising was a terrible idea.

I think the biggest problem though was the awful release timing. The JP version of Infinity was announced like right around the US release of vanilla PSPo2 (which I also purchased because I love giving Sega my money) and a ton of people decided to not buy it and just wait for the SHINY AND COOL expansion.

If Sega West had any sense they would have cancelled the English PSPo2 release as soon as they had any inkling of Infinity, and gotten ready to release that one instead. Kinda like when D3 Publisher cancelled God Eater and put up a listing for God Eater Burst a short time later. But it's Sega so, yeah. Good job guys!

Mewn

Post subject: Re: No English PSPo2i release?

Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2011 7:15 pm

PSUPedia SysOp

Joined: Wed May 28, 2008 9:57 amPosts: 1340

Definitely, Sega should have gone for Infinity and skipped PSP2. Infinity has everything PSP2 has anyway (including PSP2's download missions and free item DLC on the disc).

The thing about piracy made me laugh - iirc PSP2 EN didn't need the Little Wing License code from legit copies to play online at first (so anyone could play if they could bypass PSN...), and by the time they bothered to fix it it was a token effort. Come to think of it, 'token effort' describes PSP2 EN quite well.

I'd like to see a fan translation project crop up à la Monster Hunter, but I'm not sure anyone in the PS community cares enough and has the skills to do it. I still remember the fan translation project posted on PSOW for the first game that was basically 'hey we're going to translate the game and be awesome... ok how do we actually do anything?' Good for a laugh at least.

_________________Space court. For people in space. Judge space sun presiding. Bam. Guilty. Of being in space.

Yeah even my tools can't open half the files from PSP2i so it's not going to happen.

_________________Looking at the game files is cheating.

Tycho

Post subject: Re: No English PSPo2i release?

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 6:15 am

PSUPedia Bureaucrat

Joined: Wed May 28, 2008 4:04 amPosts: 256

I like how Monster Hunter Portable 3 had a Chinese fan translation in like the first week.Crap like this would make me feel good about being a Japanese major. But then they released Pokedex 3DS two weeks later in Japan, so then I became very sad. :(

Zorak000

Post subject: Re: No English PSPo2i release?

Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2011 6:08 am

Joined: Mon Dec 08, 2008 5:03 amPosts: 102Location: somewhere

Mewn wrote:

I've said it for years - a Western company needs to do a good PSO-style game. Diablo and the like (while a cool genre I enjoy) don't count.

There is Spiral Knights, which works like a combo of Gauntlet and Legend of Zelda: Four Sword. developed by Three Rings and published, ironically by SEGA; though it is a Freemium game.

or if that does not count either then what would you consider a "PSO-Style game"?